General
Information is based on dictionaries and other sources. Pinyin readings reflect standard Mandarin usage; for some dialect alternative names it may be of little practical use, especially for South China. Many Korean glosses are highly tentative. Comments and corrections welcome.
The tropic birds are reportedly found in the Paracels, a disputed group of islands in the South China Sea now under Chinese control. They are also found in Taiwan.
The tropic birds are known as 热带鸟 'tropic zone bird' or 鹲 in Chinese. 热带鸟 'tropic zone bird' is a translation of the English-language name, which has been adopted either directly from English or via Japanese. The characters 热带 literally mean 'hot zone', i.e., 'torrid zone'. This name is found in older Chinese ornithological sources and is still used on Taiwan.
Mainland ornithologists now prefer 鹲 , which appears to be a revival of an old term (it originally referred to a semi-mythical bird) in order to replace 热带鸟 'tropic zone bird'.
Species names
ABOUT THIS TABLE (Hover cursor to see) SCIENTIFIC & ENGLISH |
CHINESE |
EAST |
SOUTH | NORTH |
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| Phaeton | ||||||||
Latin |
English | Chinese |
Chinese (Taiwan) |
Other Ch |
Japanese |
Korean |
Vietnamese |
Mongolian |
Phaethon
aethereus |
Red-billed tropicbird Red-billed tropic bird Short-tailed tropic-bird | 红嘴鹲 (紅嘴鸏) 'red-billed meng' (1, 2, 4) 短尾鹲 (短尾鸏) 'short-tailed meng' (3, 5. Alternative in 1) |
アカハシネッタイチョウ (赤嘴熱帯鳥) aka-hashi nettai-chō 'red-billed tropic bird' |
Chim nhiệt đới 'tropic bird' |
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